Intro to Cons 101
by punkfarie
Summary: Conventions are a great place to meet your soulmate. ***1st Place Judges Vote Twi Revenge of the Nerds Contest***
1. Chapter 1

**So I submitted this to the Twi Revenge of the Nerd contest on a whim. It was a story I had been working on before the contest and decided to rework somethings to make it work for the contest. I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue it or not. I work two jobs and I have three kids to deal with but I figured, what the hell. I hope you guys can be patient with me and deal with irregular updates. I have a somewhat clear plan of how I want the story to go and plan on it being on the shorter side. (max of 12 chapters probably?) So again, please be patient with me and I hope you enjoy the story!**

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Edward

As I snapped a picture of the group of Naruto cosplayers posing in front of me, I noticed out of the corner of my eye, someone taking a picture of me. I smiled. The circle of life at a con. I didn't cosplay often. It made taking pictures more difficult when everyone was trying to get your picture. I was dressed fairly simply as Peter Parker, hoodie unzipped halfway to show off the Spiderman suit underneath. The camera added to the effect of course. This was my go-to cosplay. Sometimes I went as Jimmy Olsen but that was much less recognizable.

"Thanks, guys," I said to the group and fished one of my cards out of my pocket. _Edward Cullen, Photographer - WashGeeks_ it said. "I normally get pictures up on Facebook within the week. Please feel free to tag yourselves. See you guys at ECCC next week?" They nodded enthusiastically. We finished our goodbyes and I set off in search of other amazing cosplay. The group was immediately asked to pose by another photographer. Another reason why I didn't cosplay much. You didn't always get to enjoy the con. If you were really good, you rarely got to walk around. I liked my freedom. Plus, I had a job to do.

This particular con was new and still small. Only a couple halls and the main lobby. Nothing compared to Emerald City Comic Con which was the following weekend. Lots of people here were testing out their stuff for ECCC. Honestly, the WashGeeks crew should be home preparing but we were asked to come to this con by the showrunners to help spread the word, so here we were.

Jasper, my best friend, was cosplaying as Daryl Dixon, complete with a crossbow. He was currently posing with two blondes. I rolled my eyes. His Daryl always got him cute girls. I watched him pull out cards and give one to each girl after writing his phone number on them. He looked over and me and winked. I smiled and flipped him off.

I snapped a couple pictures of the crowd. It wasn't a bad turn out for a con in its second year. I hoped with our promotion it had a bigger turn out next year, though hopefully, they not schedule it right before ECCC.

WashGeeks was the love child of me and Jasper. We started it as a blog when we were freshman in high school, along with our friend Ben. We had always been into comics and movies and stuff. Jasper's mom was a seamstress and when cosplaying at conventions started to become a more mainstream thing, she started getting commissions. Which was how we got into attending cons. We were hooked from the moment we stepped into our first convention. It was everything we loved under one roof. From Star Wars to DC to video games to obscure horror movies. Jasper's twin Rosalie and her best friend Angie got sucked in too and we created the blog together. Thanks to a lot of hard work, six years later we had a huge following, in the hundreds of thousands of followers. Well, hard work and the extreme luck of Morena Baccarin coming across an article we wrote about her and retweeting it. Now it was a site that got press credentials and had advertisers and a store. We got invited to things like new conventions and local movie premieres. It was difficult sometimes with school but man, we loved it.

"So, we giving this place a good review?" Jasper sidled up beside me.

"Yea I think so. Have you checked out the artist's alley yet? Not bad. Lots of independent comics."

"Have you seen my sister?" He asked, surveying the crowd, not really paying attention to what I was saying.

"She's over there with Emmett and his group." I nodded toward their direction. Rosalie fell absolutely in love with cosplaying from the start. It fit in nicely with her need to always be the center of attention. As much as I hated to admit it because she was practically my sister, she had a body that looked like it came straight out of a comic book. She was born to dress up and pose. Her boyfriend Emmett belonged to a cosplay group that did charity events and every convention they raised money for the local children's hospital by having a photo booth. Today Emmett was Wolverine and Rose was Jean Grey. They were attracting a lot of attention. Rose was hot in her skin tight suit and Emmett was a giant, towering over every person in the hall.

"She's such a show-off." Jasper rolled his eyes.

"Look who's talking Mr. I wear cut off sleeves to get girls." I muttered. Jasper scoffed.

"Like dressing up as everyone's favorite nerdy hero doesn't get you phone numbers." He reached out and pinched my Spiderman suit. "Mr. Spandex." I pushed him.

"Emmett should have dressed as Colossus. It fits him better." I said, watching him take pictures with some kids dressed as various Xmen.

"Yea, but Wolverine is more recognizable. It helps draw people in."

"Have Peter and Garrett checked in?" Jasper pulled out his phone and pulled up the group chat.

"If you ever checked your phone, you'd know Peter is at a weapon making panel and Garrett is playing in a Munchkin tournament." I clicked a couple pictures of a guy dressed as Link from Legend of Zelda swinging his Master Sword in a large arc.

"I can't take pictures if my nose is buried in my phone," I muttered.

"Yea, yea. Starbucks when the con is over okay? I'm going to check out Artist's Alley." I nodded, and Jasper smacked the back of my head as he walked away. Ass.

I took pictures of Emmett and his group and then walked around the rest of the con taking random pictures of the attendees and the stands. The head of the con, Eleazer, wanted shots of people enjoying his convention to use for promotion next year. I didn't have to try too hard, people seemed to be enjoying it. Mostly a younger crowd or families were in attendance. That was typical of smaller cons. ECCC was huge and crowded, it was easier for people with kids to have fun at cons like this one.

Once the convention ended, I packed up my camera and headed down the street to Starbucks. When I got there, I noticed Jasper and Ben had already commandeered the corner that had two couches. Rose was sitting down, with Emmett right next to her. I dropped down on the couch between Jazz and the armrest. This was our favorite spot, and if someone was occupying it, we sent over Rose to flirt until we got it. It generally worked whether they were male or female.

Jasper had his little command center set up on the table. He was our tech guy; he built the website and kept it running. We were on the hunt for new talent because Rose and Angie had decided to branch off and form their own site geared more towards women. We didn't begrudge them for leaving. We got it, the nerd world was sometimes painfully male. We still worked together and helped each other out and Jasper was tech for their site as well.

"So, good news guys," Angie said as she sat down on Ben's lap. "We have two girls coming to try out for the site during ECCC."

"Are they hot?" Jasper asked without looking up from his computer. Rose smacked him hard on the back of his head. "Ow! What the fuck Rosie?"

"You're a disgusting perv." She huffed.

"It's a legitimate question!" He argued. She pointed at him and gave him a hard look.

"You stay away from them."

"C'mon Rosie, leave him alone. He's still heartbroken over Maria dumping him." I said, chuckling slightly.

"She did not dump me, it was a conscious uncoupling."

"She consciously dumped your ass." Emmett piped up. Jasper scowled but didn't respond. He couldn't win this one. Peter and Garrett joined then, plopping down on the couch opposite me. Rose waited until they got settled to continue.

"Anyway. As Angie was beginning to explain, we have two girls coming for ECCC. A writer and a photographer. Bella and Alice. They run their own blog now and are moving here for college in the fall. We think they'd be a good addition." Rose explained.

"So be nice guys," Angie added. She looked more towards Peter. He could be a jackass.

"What's the blog called?" Jasper asked.

"Two Nerdy Girls." Angie said, and Jasper quickly pulled up their blog.

"Hmm, not bad for a non-paid site. They are organized, that's good." I peeked over his shoulder as he looked through the site.

"Nice. The photographer is talented. Maybe as much as me." I gloated as everyone rolled their eyes. Seriously, though whichever one of the girls was the photographer, she had some skills. "Jazz look! You're in the background of that shot." I pointed to a picture of a group of customers buying from a vintage comic stand. Jasper was dressed as Beast Boy, complete with green hair and skin. Though she hadn't been into cosplay, Maria was next to him as Raven. She looked uncomfortable in the picture.

"Oh yeah, that's ECCC last year. Huh. I hope she's cute because we might just be meant to be." Rose and Angie both threw napkins at him.

"Do they have profiles?" I asked, shallowly hoping that we were in fact hot. Not that I was pervy and looking to get laid like Jazz, but I had been single for a while and it would be nice to finally date someone that didn't think my nerd stuff was a waste of time.

"Yup." He pulled up and About Me section but there were no pictures. Just that they were seniors, lived in Washington, and that they'd founded the blog five years ago. The standard that didn't really give anything away. Since they were seniors in high school, I guessed their parents forbade them from putting identifiable information on the site. Not that I blamed them. Bella was the writer and Alice the photographer. Hats off to Alice then for her awesome pictures.

"So Alice is the name of my future wife." Jazz said.

"What if she's ugly? Or fat?" Peter joked. "Not that you could turn down a fat girl at this point. How long has it been?" Yea, Peter was in extra asshole mode. He was like this a lot, if it wasn't for Garrett, we probably would've gotten rid of him by this point. They were a package deal, an awkward couple that fought almost as much as Rose and Jasper but apparently, they loved each other.

"How dare you insult the future Mrs. Hale. She's beautiful, I just know it. I love her already."

"Great. Now that that's settled, Emmett and I are going to go. I need regular clothes on." Rose got up to leave. Our little group broke up after that, cons were exhausting and we all wanted to get home to rest. We made plans to meet up the next day to start planning for ECCC, which started in only a few days.

Jazz and I went home to the off-campus apartment that we shared. He went straight to the tv to play video games. He tossed me a controller.

"Don't you have homework?" I asked as I threw back the controller.

"Yup. But I need to come down from my con high."

"Yea okay, dude." I was shocked Jasper got decent grades, he never seemed to do his work. I went to my own room to start editing pictures. I took way too many as usual. After a few hours, I got about halfway done when I took a break to check my phone. Scroll, scroll scroll, nothing interesting. Pics of friends that went to the beach or out clubbing or frat parties. Things I didn't do because I was always busy with school and the site. Not that I felt like I missed out. I enjoyed doing what I did.

I noticed my ex Jessica posted a picture of herself with under the Rodeo Drive road sign. Our breakup was not a conscious uncoupling. Much to my surprise, she dumped me after graduation to move to California to be an actress. That had been almost a year ago. I sighed and put down my phone. I wasn't in the mood to edit after that. I decided to pull up the Two Nerdy Girls site, I had to admit I was curious about these girls that were going to be joining our little nerd family.

I read a few articles and wished I could see a picture of the author. There was a really cute brunette in a few pictures but there was no indication who she was. At least I knew she wasn't the photographer, Jasper and I might have to fight. She should be a professional writer. I agreed with her take on the new Hellboy plotline. Her insight on Wonder Woman made me see a different side. I completely forgot about editing my pictures and stayed up half the night reading most of the articles on the blog I went years back and could see the improvement in her writing and where they had found their niche as blog. Maybe I was a bit in love with her like Jazz was the photographer. I suddenly couldn't wait to meet her.

Bella

"Okay, they said it was the one just past the convention center." Alice consulted the GPS on her phone, "And the convention center is that way." She pointed left. We were standing next to a giant flower pot outside our hotel. At least we had a landmark to help us. "You ready?"

I shrugged and motioned for her to lead the way. I nervously fingered the strap on my messenger bag as we walked through the unfamiliar city. Alice was taking it all in; eyes wide, a smile spread across her face, her camera around her neck. We had been to Seattle before for conventions, but always with parents carting us around. This was our first weekend on our own and it was such an important weekend it bordered on ridiculous. So important that I was freaking out. Before I knew it, we were in front of the familiar Starbucks sign.

"Ready?" She asked me as we approached the door.

"As I'll ever be I guess." I shrugged again, anxious. She grabbed my upper arms and radiated enthusiasm at me.

"We are going to blow them away. They are going to love us." Alice was always so positive. I was the Debbie downer of our two-person clique. She spent her time in a fantasy world of sunshine and rainbows, while I kept us firmly in reality. We balanced each other.

She started to pout. I was immune to her sad puppy looks by now, it was easy to see why she always got whatever she wanted. She looked like she walked out of every fanboy's favorite anime. She was petite with big doe eyes. Her creamy white skin was practically flawless thanks to her rigid skin care regimen. Her pixie hair dyed pink for the weekend, which only added to the fantasy, and was on purpose of course. She knew how to work her looks to her benefit. "Say it with me. We're going to be awesome." The some in awesome came out a little sing-songy.

"We're going to be awesome." I sighed heavily. Her smile fell. I hated seeing her frown, so I threw my arms around her in fake joy. "We are going to be the best two fucking convention bloggers in the history of forever. Better?" Alice's face was never meant to frown, especially not because of my lack of self-confidence.

"Absolutely." She giggled as we walked arm in arm into the coffee shop. We both inhaled deeply, enjoying the smells. There was no Starbucks back home in Forks, there was a coffee shop but it pales in comparison. After getting our high off the aromas, we looked around for the people we were to meet, Rosalie Hale and Angela Webber.

Alice and I ran what we referred to as a nerd blog. We went to conventions and wrote movie and comic book reviews and other pop culture type stuff. There wasn't much in Forks but our parents were so glad we weren't pregnant or on drugs like most of the other teenagers at our school, they were more than happy to indulge us.

We had a decent following on our own, but we had been contacted by Rosalie and Angela to possibly work on their site, FemmeNerds. Their site was only slightly older than ours but it was big and official, with advertisers and a store where they sold nerdy accessories and cosplay stuff. It was a branch off from another even bigger site, WashGeeks, which had followers in the six digits.

FemmeNerds came with press credentials. Real actual press credentials! We were in Seattle on their dime and attending Emerald City Comic Con as an audition of sorts. We weren't getting paid but it meant free tickets, looked good on a resume and could open doors to paying jobs. The possibilities were so amazing that our parents only barely threw a fit about us missing two and a half days of school. Not like last semester of senior year mattered that much.

"Bella? Alice?" A tall, skinny brunette with purple cat's eye glasses approached us. "Hi, I'm Angela." She extended her hand to both of us. "It's so great to finally meet you! Rosie is getting coffee, you like caramel macchiatos, right? Here, have a seat." She was so cute and perky, with her Captain America dress and the pens in her ponytail. She led us to two couches with a table between them. There were laptops and papers everywhere, they'd clearly been here awhile. "Oh, excuse the mess, the day before a con is a nightmare." She attempted to organize the chaos.

While Angela bent over the table, the most alarmingly beautiful woman I've ever seen set four coffees in front of us. She was model tall, blonde, and curvy in all the right places to make it look like her dress was painted on her. A Loki dress, one I owned from Hot Topic but apparently tailored to her exact measurements.

"Hi!" She greeted us with a big friendly smile that was a bit disarming. She was rather intimidating looking. "I'm Rosalie, thank you so much for coming! How was the trip? Did you get checked in okay?" She sat down and grabbed one of the coffees.

"Oh, yes. The room is amazing. Thank you for this opportunity." Alice nudged me with her elbow.

"Um, yes. Thank you. We really appreciate this." I grabbed a coffee as well and took a sip, burning my tongue. I was so nervous. Writing for my own blog was one thing but there was already a certain quality expected from FemmeNerds. They had thousands of loyal followers. Nerds could be a nasty bunch, especially online; they had no remorse and they hated change. But my advisor told me if I wanted to be a successful writer, I needed to grow a thicker skin. Writing for such a big site seemed like throwing myself to the wolves. While I was excited to be given this chance, I was about thirty seconds from jumping ship.

Rosalie and Angela seemed to notice my hesitation. "I know we implied that this was an audition but it's kind of not." Angela tried to reassure me with a smile. "We have been following your blog for a while and we like what we see. We want you to work on our site. We plan on hiring you. We asked you here to make sure you like us and we can all work well together. ECCC is the biggest, most stressful convention we do." Angela motioned to Rose who nodded.

"Yea, please know that we are not professionals. I'm not even a writing or a journalism major." Rosalie explained. "We started doing this for fun on my brother's site, WashGeeks and after a while, we wanted to go into a more feminine direction. WG was becoming more a boy's club, not that they intended that." She added quickly. "My brother and his friends try to keep in it inclusive but you know how that goes in the nerd word." Rose shrugged. Alice and I nodded knowingly.

"We've had quite a few people that didn't work out, we'd love someone to stick around for long-term and see where it goes. We know that you'll be a freshman next year and that will make things crazy, but we won't overload you. Honestly, we won't be asking more from you than what you already do. We also have two other girls that can help out if you guys can't do something. School comes first, obviously." She smiled brightly, looking like a toothpaste commercial. I laughed to myself, I liked these girls already. My unease was melting away in their presence. They were total opposites like Alice and me; we were great together. I glanced at Alice who was silently begging me to agree.

"Yea. Okay. Sounds great." I shrugged. Rosalie and Angela squealed, and we did a cheers with our coffee cups. We spent several hours working out the finer details of working ECCC; which panels they wanted us to attend, what they expected from our coverage.

Two grande macchiatos and a cake pop later, I was feeling comfortable. Rose was warm and friendly. She got into conventions because her mom is a seamstress and when she started getting cosplay commissions, Rose fell in love. Rose was studying fashion, made her own cosplay and often altered her clothing (hence the Loki dress that was totally banging on her). She made a lot of the accessories they sold on their site and their brother's. Angie was a genius, like a real one, my age but had graduated early. Her comic book knowledge was extensive; she probably knew more about Marvel than Stan Lee. Rose and Angie had been neighbors back home, best friends since diapers like Alice and me.

"Can I ask how you found our blog?" Alice asked as she took a bite of a Rice Krispie treat.

"We're from Port Angeles and we like to follow local things. We've partied a few times in Forks, and at the beach? Those were crazy." Rose laughed.

"That's actually La Push but yup, the beach was the place to be. We probably crossed paths at some point, Bella's ex practically owned that beach." Alice pointed at me with her stirrer. I groaned at the thought of Jake.

"Aw, recent breakup?" Angie reached across the table and patted my hand. I smiled weakly, I was not interested in a conversation about Jake. I didn't feel sad about the breakup, only upset that I wasn't more emotional about the end of a two-year relationship.

"There are going to be so many cute guys at ECCC that you'll forget what's his face. I'll have Emmett introduce you to some people."

"Who is Emmett?"

"He's Rosie's boy that she chased for like a year." Angie rolled her eyes as Rose kicked her.

"I don't chase boys, they chase me. It took Em a little bit longer to realize he wanted to chase me." She said as she primly smoothed her dress. "He belongs to one of those cosplay groups that does stuff for charity. I met him last year at ECCC and he dressed as the Hulk and as soon as I saw him in those ripped shorts, I knew he had to have me."

"Speaking of cute boys." Angie trailed off and started blushing like crazy as three boys descended upon us. One, blonde and skinny, jumped over the back of the couch and landed between Rose and Angie. Another waved shyly at Angela and dragged an empty chair over. The third, bronze haired and the hottest fucking thing I've ever seen on two legs, perched on the arm of the couch next to Rose. I practically had to force my head to turn away from him. The blonde one grinned at me but his eyes widened at the sight of Alice.

"Are you going to introduce us?" The blonde one laid his head on Rose's shoulder, which she quickly shrugged off.

"No." He gave her a puppy dog looked and she sighed dramatically.

"This is my annoying brother, Jasper, and his much less obnoxious friend, Ben." She pointed to one sitting next to Angela. "And equally as obnoxious friend, Edward. They run WashGeeks." She pointed up to the one sitting on the arm of the couch. Jesus Christ, he was beautiful. The shaggy, clearly not brushed hair, green eyes, long slender…everything. I wanted to lick his jawline, which was odd considering I had never had that desire with any guy, like, ever. He was wearing a Han Shot First shirt that had seen better days but fitted him perfectly. Alice kicked me in the ankle with the heel of her boot and I could feel myself turning into a tomato. Edward bit his lip and chuckled.

"This is Bella and Alice. They are visiting from Forks." Rose finished.

"Forks, huh? I've known a few Forks girls. They could really party." Edward reached over and smacked Jasper on the back of the head.

"Remember?"

"Yea, I remember. I think I would have remembered you, girls, though." Jasper zeroed in on Alice, smirking.

"Gross." Rose fake gagged and shoved her brother off her. "These are the girls I was telling you about? That run the blog? They are not here for you."

"Yet." Jasper winked at Alice and she blushed. Alice didn't blush. She made other people blush. I couldn't believe that Alice was falling for it. I guess I wasn't one to talk, considering I was two seconds from launching myself at Edward and ripping that t-shirt off.

"You're disgusting." Rose covered his face with her hand and pushed him back into the couch. "Sorry about him. He's adopted."

"I'm your twin!" He cried out from behind Rose's hand. She pushed him further back into the couch and stuck her tongue out at him. "Edward help!" Edward laughed and held up his hands in surrender.

"Sorry dude, I don't want to lose an appendage," Edward said, amused.

"Oookay." Angela moved away from the wrestling siblings to sit next to me. "They do this a lot. You are welcome to stay and watch them bicker, but Ben and I have plans." She began to pack up her stuff.

"Doors open at ten, the press gets in at nine. We'll meet here at around eight thirty? That way we can caffeinate." She smiled warmly at us.

"I'm so excited to work with you two!" She gave us each a quick hug and left with Ben.

Rose stopped abusing her brother long enough to wave goodbye to Angela. "Oh shit, I have to go. Em is waiting! We were having so much fun, I didn't realize what time it was!" Rose quickly gathered her things. "Are you guys ok to get back to your hotel? I can give you cab fare."

"We can get them back Rose, it's only down the street," Jasper said, smiling at Alice again. "If that's ok with the ladies?"

"The ladies?" Rose repeated sarcastically. "Gross. Are you guys okay with that? It's getting dark and Seattle is a strange city to you."

"Rose, it's about a fifteen-minute walk. We can handle it." Edward rolled his eyes. "Plus, we have to go that way, precon party."

"It's totally fine," Alice said. She was locking eyes with Jasper and smiling like a goof.

"Gotcha. I will see you guys tomorrow then. Eight-thirty sharp!" Rose took off after blowing us a kiss and we were left with Jasper and Edward. God, Edward was frick-frackin' hot.

"So…" Edward trailed off. It was awkward, all of us staring silently. Alice and Jasper were making goo-goo eyes at each other.

"Let's get these beautiful women home safely," Jasper said, standing up and offering an arm to Alice, which she literally bounced up to take. I rolled my eyes. She always wanted to be the heroine of her own young adult novel, she was all about the love at first sight. I noticed Edward was looking at Jasper with a similar expression.

Jasper and Alice took the lead and I followed closely behind with Edward beside me. I didn't know what to say. He kind of flustered me with this attractiveness. He was too pretty to be into me. We didn't anything to each other the entire walk, but it wasn't exactly uncomfortable. In fact, it was...nice. I noticed that we walked in sync.

Jasper kept talking in a low voice to Alice, I wasn't sure what he was saying but I heard her giggling. Her flirty giggle was high and light, like bells. I didn't have a flirty laugh. I had a loud guffaw that has been compared to Roseanne's. Whatever.

When he reached the hotel, Jasper actually bowed and kissed Alice's hand. "Ma'am"

"Really," I said under my breath. Edward must have heard me because he let out a short laugh. I smiled.

"See you guys tomorrow?" He asked.

"Yea, of course." I shrugged. I gotta stop doing that all the time! It was my go-to thing when I was nervous. Made me look like I had a twitch.

"I looked forward to working with you." He smiled a crooked smile and I practically melted right there and then.

"Yes." I sighed dreamily. "Me too. I mean, with you. Working with you. I look forward to it too." I stumbled over my words. He chuckled and waved goodbye. As he turned to leave he slung his arm around Jasper to drag him away.

"C'mon dude. We've got a party to crash." They walked off shoving each other down the street.

"Wow," Alice said as she watched them go. "This is going to be the best convention ever."

"Hell yeah." I agreed.

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 **Thank you for reading and hopefully reviewing. I will do my best to get another chapter up soon. I have a couple written already but I want to get more done in advance.**

 **thank you to i_heart_the_doc simply for being awesome and being my best friend and supporter.**

 **yes i attend cons and have cosplayed (as Mabel from Gravity Falls and Cosima from Orphan Black) i love them! so much fun.**

 **what character would you cosplay as?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello lovelies! Thank you for all the kind words with the first chapter. I figured I'd give you guys a new chapter because I finished a future chapter. I hope you enjoy!**

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Bella

The first day of the con, I noticed Alice taking extra care to do her hair and makeup. We decided that since we were working, we would not cosplay. It was hard to focus on things when you cosplayed because if you are good, everyone wants to stop you to take your picture. Comfort was key at a convention. So, I picked out my favorite Mischief Managed tank top, some well-worn jeans, and my lucky Chucks. They were lucky because I won them at a giveaway at a convention. They were specially designed black Harry Potter chucks with Golden Snitches sewn into them. I loved them and only wore them to cons. So far, nothing bad had happened while I was wearing them, therefore they were lucky.

Alice was wearing a short plaid skirt, an Attack on Titan shirt, and some thick black knee-high boots with buckles on them. She was in the process of making her eyes look anime-ish. She was definitely trying to get attention. Jasper's attention no doubt. She hadn't shut up about him all night.

"Is that what you are going to wear?" Alice asked as she applied the last touches of her mascara.

"It's a convention, what else am I going to wear?" I looked down at my clothes. I was comfy and nerdy. The best one could hope for at a con, to be honest. I left my hair down, though I'd end up twisting it up with a pen later when it started to annoy me.

"Not going to dress up for Edward?" She asked, and I blushed.

"Why do I need to dress up for Edward?" My face was literally on fire.

"Because you think he's so cute." There was the sing-song voice again. If she wasn't my bestie for life I'd stab her with her own eyeliner pencil.

I spread my arms and spun around. "This is me. He can take it or leave it."

"And you would prefer he take it?" She started to giggle, and I threw my notebook at her.

"Hurry the fuck up. It's almost eight and I need to be caffeinated." She tossed my notebook back to me while I packed up my messenger bag. She grabbed her camera bag and off we went. The walk was full of con-goers and cosplayers posing on the street. The line ran around the convention center, even at this early hour. Cars were honking, people were yelling mostly funny things out the windows. Alice didn't stop taking pictures the whole walk. I took in a deep breath, enjoying the sights and sounds. This felt right. This felt like home to me. I started taking notes while Alice clicked away with her camera.

"Hard at work already?" A voice startled me so bad I dropped my notebook.

"Jesus." I looked up to find Edward holding two cups of Starbucks. He was a full head taller than me and the way the morning sunlight shone behind him gave him a halo, making his good looks seem angelic. So unfair that he was so attractive.

"Sorry. Caffeine?" He held out a cup as I bent down to pick up the notebook.

"Um. Thanks." I took the coffee he handed me. It was a mocha with cinnamon, perfect! I sighed a little as I sipped, and he gave me a crooked smile. Damn, he was good. I looked him over, he was wearing a vintage Marvel shirt and some holey jeans. He had a camera bag similar to Alice's, only his was covered in patches from various fandoms. "You're a photographer?"

"Yea. I do the pictures and Jasper designs and Ben writes. We have a couple other people who write too; Peter and Garrett. You'll meet them. Everyone is waiting inside." He pointed towards Starbucks with his coffee.

"Okay." I looked around for Alice, but she already discovered Jasper, who had also brought out coffee. Interesting. She looped her arm through his and walked inside. Edward made an after you gesture, and I followed behind Alice.

Inside was packed, all the normal people combined with the con goers trying to get their much needed morning buzz on. I found Rose standing guard at the couches; she was dressed as Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy. Next to her was a giant bodybuilder of a man dressed as Drax. They looked badass and intimidating as fuck. No wonder she scored the couches in the crowd. Angela was there, dressed as Peggy Carter and Ben was Bucky Barnes. I was surprised he wasn't Captain America, but Ben had more of a Bucky, pre-Winter Soldier look about him. They were cute. Two other boys were sitting, not in cosplay, I guessed them to be Peter and Garrett.

"No cosplay for you?" I asked Edward. I tried to imagine what character he would be best as. Might be nice to see him in full spandex.

"No. It's hard to take pictures when people want pictures of you. You?"

"Same. Hard to work, but I like to do Katniss, Agent Carter or sometimes Korra. I'd like to try and pull off Jessica Jones at some point. It all depends on what I'm doing at that con." Alice and I were greeted with hugs when we reached the group. Rose was even more amazing up close, she paid so much attention to detail. She went full green skin and everything.

"Rose, you look fucking incredible," I said in complete awe.

"Thank you," She said as she twirled around. "I'd like to introduce you to Emmett." I went to shake Emmett's hand and he threw his arms around me in a giant bear hug.

"You must be Bella! I've heard all about you. Rosie is so excited to have you guys here. Welcome our little nerd family." Emmett exclaimed as he lifted me off my feet.

"Oh. Ha, thank you." I returned the hug and he set me down. He did the same to Alice which was pretty fun to watch considering she was even smaller than me. She looked like an elementary school student compared to Emmett. We were officially introduced to Peter and Garrett who were a lot less jovial than Emmett. They hadn't gotten their caffeine fix yet or were hung over from the precon party the night before. I couldn't tell. After pastries were purchased, we settled in to go over the day.

"We had an idea last night that I'm not sure you are going to go for," Angie said cautiously. "Because ECCC is so big and there is so much to cover, and we have new people with us, we've decided to split you all up. That way Bella and Alice get a feel for how we do things and we get a feel for how they do things."

I glanced nervously at Alice. We always worked together, rarely separated. She was my anti-anxiety med in human form. She reached over and took my hand, squeezing it.

"So, Alice, you'll be with Ben, Me, and Peter. "Angie continued. "Bella, you'll be with Edward and Garrett. Rose is working with Emmett today at the charity booth. Everyone know what you are covering?" We all nodded. "Jasper, you do you." She added.

"Um, what exactly does Jasper do?" Alice asked.

"Jerk off," Peter mumbled.

"Fuck you, Peter," Jasper said. "My job is to maintain the damn site you write for. I think I'll do my thing for a while and follow-up later. Is there anything anyone wants to get on the site right away?" Everyone shook their heads. "Okay, I've got my wifi hub and three laptop batteries with me if needed. Also, I have some extra chargers. Hit me up on the group chat if I'm needed." He fake saluted all of us and on his way out, stopped by to whisper something in Alice's ear. She giggled, and he left, walking backward to smile at her.

"Well, I think we are ready," Angie said. We left the coffee shop in a group and went straight to the press entrance. Alice and I, of course, took several ridiculous selfies with our first ever real-life press badges. We were hesitant to separate but it wasn't just us anymore. We were here to work not just mess around as friends.

"So, what did Jasper say to you?" I asked before we left with our own groups.

"That he'd have a surprise for me at lunch." Alice sighed. "I can't wait."

"C'mon girls say goodbye. We've got work to do!" Angie coaxed us. After one more good luck hug, we went off with our own groups. My group and the other group split the panels for the day, we were getting celebrity panels while they were covering cosplay, fanfiction, and gaming panels. I was so nervous I was shaking a bit. I started chewing on my pen. Garrett and I agreed to split even further since he was their backup photographer he could write and take pics as needed. Edward would stick with me since I was the new girl. I wondered if it had been really Edward's suggestion.

I had an impressive list to cover; Sean Astin, Jewel Staite, Michael Rooker, James Marsters and one of my favorites, John Barrowman. I loved going to his panels, they were always newsworthy. The best part of having press cred was I didn't have to leave the hall. I was ridiculously excited to be up close.

The convention center wasn't too packed, Thursdays and Fridays were usually the easiest days to get around, not a lot of people were crazy enough to take time off work or school to come to a comic book convention. The cosplay game was already amazing, lots of Harley Quinns and Deadpools, that was standard. If you didn't see at least five different Deadpools while waiting in line, you weren't at a good convention. I motioned for Edward to get a picture of the group of elaborate Disney princess cosplay. Disney fans were always good cosplayers. I was so happy to be at ECCC. It felt like home away from home. Despite my anxiety and the crowds, I loved conventions. People were usually cool and there was so much to catch your eye and I loved meeting the celebrities. I was like a kid in a candy store and as we took our initial tour of where everything was, Edward kept laughing at me while I pointed out everything that excited me.

But the day that started out so full of promise quickly turned into a nightmare. Sean Astin was delayed, and they had to redo the whole panel schedule. Jewel got held up at her autograph session, which I honestly couldn't be mad about because that meant she was an extra awesome fan loving actress. Plus, there were two press guys around that were stereotypical nerd men that thought I was some fake geek girl ditz. Edward finally set them straight.

"Why don't you guys back off. She's legit. She's part of the WashGeeks family." WashGeeks had such a great rep in this area, that shut them up. It should have made me feel better, being considered part of the team but it didn't. I wanted to prove myself worthy, not worthy by association but that was generally the nature of being a girl in the convention world. By lunch, I was annoyed and not having a bit of fun. The morning panels had been entertaining, with lots of good bits to write about and some things I hadn't previously heard. But the schedule changing got under my skin like it always did. It was a major con attendee flaw I had. Whatever, schedules are made for a reason!

I was stressed because I was trying to prove myself and my normal sounding board was off doing her own thing. And probably Jasper. I kept second guessing myself. I was too focused and upset to have any kind of real conversation with Edward. Alice might be all coupled up with Jasper after only five minutes, but I wanted to get to know Edward. I hoped maybe he felt the same.

I was jotting down some notes from Sean's panel when I heard a quick succession of clicks. I looked up and Edward was pointing his camera at me.

"What are you doing? I snapped. "Aren't you supposed to be taking pictures of interesting things?"

"I am." He said, then took another picture.

"I'm not that interesting." My face felt warm, damn I was blushing.

"I think you are." He was flirting. Right? I didn't like having my picture taken out of cosplay so I didn't know what to do or say. I twisted my hair up with my pen and looked away.

"What house are you?" He asked.

"Huh?" I asked dumbly. He pointed to the tiny deathly hallows tattoo on the inside of my wrist. "Oh. Ravenclaw. You?"

"Gryffindor." He smiled. His smile was perfect.

"Do you say, 'hold my beer' a lot?" I asked.

He chuckled "Yea, actually. Said it before I got this scar." He pointed to a silvery line across his eyebrow.

"Do I want to know?"

"No. I'd rather you think I am at least slightly intelligent." He smirked at me and I felt myself getting hot. In more ways than just blushing. "Any other tattoos?"

"Not yet. My parents freaked when I got this. Maybe a Star Wars one someday."

"Oh, yea? Want to see mine?" I nodded eagerly. A tattoo made him infinitely hotter. And where exactly was this tattoo? He lifted his shirt and oh holy shit he had one of those V things going on. I focused where he was pointing, and I saw that he had an Ewok tattoo on his left side, right above the hip bone. I burst into laughter. "What?" He asked, defensive, as he quickly pulled down his shirt.

"I'm sorry," I said as I struggled to stop laughing. "I just- an Ewok? I thought a Gryffindor would have like, a giant flaming Millennium Falcon tattoo on their chest or something."

"Hey, I loved Ewoks as a kid." He crossed his arms defensively. I lifted an eyebrow. He wasn't telling the whole story. "Okay, it may have been a bet." He admitted.

"Now that is far more believable. What's Jasper?"

"He is a Slytherin. Alice?"

"Hufflepuff." He nodded as if that made sense.

"Like Tonks. Yea, yea that fits." He was quiet for a minute, taking pics of the booths and stuff around us. "So, you still stressed out?

"What? I mean, I'm not. I wasn't." I stumbled over my words, embarrassed.

"Yea you were. You were chewing on your lip like you were eating it. I'm surprised you aren't bleeding." He reached out and brushed my bottom lip and his hand lingered against my cheek. I froze, it would be weird to hyperventilate right? Because an attractive boy touched me? His hand felt so good against my skin. Smooth. So different than Jacob's rough and calloused hands. Edward's touch sent tingle everywhere. I felt warm and breathless. "Don't be nervous. You're doing great." For a hot second, I thought he was going to kiss me. I wanted him to kiss me. I knew him for a few hours and barely had a real conversation with him, but this boy did things to my girlie bits that I was appreciating. I nuzzled my face against his hand.

"Edward!" A high-pitched voice called from behind him. A blonde girl threw her arms around Edward as he quickly dropped his hand.

"Lauren. Hey." He wriggled out of her grasp as I try to hide my disappointment. "What are you doing here?" She was super cute, perky. Like a cheerleader.

"Oh well, you are always talking about these convention things, so I figured I'd try it out! I'm here with some friends for the day." She was smiling up at him until she glanced over at me. "Who is that?" She asked rudely, her face twisting into a sneer.

"This is Bella. She is one of the new girls working on the site. Bella, this is Lauren. She's in one of my photography classes."

"Hi. Nice to meet you," I said cheerfully and held out my hand to shake. Lauren clearly didn't appreciate being introduced as only a classmate. I took a small amount of pleasure in it. She ignored my hand and turned her back to me.

"Eddie. I'm free tonight if you want to take a break. Why don't you come out with us tonight?" She stuck her hands in her back pockets to make her chest stick out more. Gag me.

"Can't Lauren, working. I'm nonstop working until probably Monday." Edward took a tiny step backward. "It was nice to see you, Lauren. I have to feed Bella, or she'll turn into the Hulk, so I'll see you next week. In class." He put his arm around my shoulders and led me in the opposite directions. "Quickly. Quickly now, before she trails us." He muttered.

"Well. She was nice." I said as he half dragged me to the concession area.

"About as nice as a mosquito. Annoying, sucks you dry, will cause you to itch after." He said and I laughed. When we reached the concessions Alice and the rest of the group had gotten lucky enough to score a whole table for our late lunch. We made our way to them and I could tell Alice was bursting with happiness.

"Bells! Oh my god, I have so much to tell you!" Edward dropped his arm when Alice stopped talking and glanced from me to him. "Oh, do you have something to tell me too?" She added.

"No!" I put more force behind my response than necessary. "No. Edward was just helping me through the crowd."

"Right," Alice said sarcastically. "Anyway, look what Jasper bought me!" She held up a huge bouquet of bright pink and yellow daisies. Her favorite. "He also brought me a box of freakin' Godiva chocolates! Boy wants it _so_ bad." She giggled.

"Yea he must." Damn, she was falling hard and fast. This might require one of those best friend talks. I didn't know anything about Jasper.

"Get you something to eat, Bella?" We both looked up to see Edward still there.

"No, I have a lunch." I patted my messenger bag. "I never buy con food."

"I'll be back then. Let you girls finish your lovely conversation about how much my best friend wants to get in your pants." We both fell into a fit of giggles when he walked away.

"Oh oops," Alice said. "Kinda forgot he was still standing there. So, what's going on between you and him?" She asked as we sat down at the table. I waved hi to everyone, they were busy stuffing their faces or writing.

"I told you, nothing. He was helping me through the crowd. What's going on between you and Jasper? At this rate, you'll be married by Sunday." I pulled my lunch out of my bag. Con food was way overpriced, and I always brought my own food. I wasn't exactly swimming in cash like Alice and her family.

"Hmm. A con wedding would be fun."

"Haha, not funny!" She stuck her tongue out at me. "Seriously though, Jasper seems intense, you know what you're doing?"

"Of course! He's super sweet. Hasn't even tried to kiss me yet. We just met last night and haven't exactly had alone time." She was right, but I was allowed to worry about my best friend. We sat down to lunch and caught up with the rest of the crew. Alice was having blast taking pictures and had already filled up one memory card. She was going to hate herself when editing time came around. Rose and Emmett joined us, and they had cute stories of little kids wanting their pictures. Hell, I was a legal adult and I wanted my picture taken with them, they looked _that_ good.

A steaming cup of coffee appeared in front of my face. "Mocha?"

"Edward, you seriously did not spend ten dollars on a cup of coffee."

"No, only eight. You seem like you need caffeine." He smiled down at me and I melted a bit. Alice nudged me with her elbow.

"Well, thanks." I took a sip and heard angels sing. Coffee had definitely been needed. This boy was making me laugh and getting me coffee? Yea, he was getting to at least third base. If he tried. I wasn't sure that was where his head was at and when exactly where we going to get alone time? In between panels? Not likely. He got coffee for Angie and she about got on her knees to praise him. Maybe he was just a really nice guy?

"Hello? Bella!" I snapped out of my thought spiral. Alice was poking me in the shoulder. "I have to go, there's a panel about tabletop gaming I need to get to. We're all meeting at this Indian place after?"

"What no Starbucks?" I pouted for a second and got The Look from Alice. "Right, I'll be there."

"Excuse me," Edward said around a giant mouthful of burger. "I thought it was my turn to pick first after con food place." He swallowed.

"You weren't around and didn't answer your group text," Rose said. Edward took his phone out of his pocket to check it.

"Aw, mother-." He started before Garrett threw a paper napkin at him.

"Check your messages next time dude. My pick!" Garrett smiled. He seemed to be in a much better mood than this morning.

"Ass," Edward said.

"Douche," Garrett replied.

"Okay as charming as this is, we have a panel to get to." I reminded Edward and tapped the time on his phone. I was absolutely not going to miss John Barrowman, not even for some cute guy.

He quickly finished his lunch and off we went. The rest of the day was much better. John Barrowman was perfect of course. Dressed in a TARDIS dress and matching heels, he was hysterical. He even gave me a kiss on the cheek, which Edward got a picture of. It was getting framed and hung on the wall when I got home.

I was still stressed and nervous, but Edward was encouraging and kept me calm for the most part. I asked him questions between panels. I learned he was an art major with a focus on photography. He and Jasper started attending cons when they were in middle school, long before Rose got into it. He loved comics as long as he could remember, mostly Marvel but he enjoyed DC. He and Jasper started their site for the same reason Alice and I did, we could never shut up about the nerd stuff we loved. They fully supported Rose and Angie venturing off with their own site. They weren't strangers to how girls were treated in the nerd world. The more we talked, the more I found myself actually liking him and not just thinking he's some hot guy I wanted to hook up with. He was funny and sweet and smart.

By the end of the convention at seven, I was tired. Cons are exhausting to begin with but mix in the added pressure of trying to perform at your best? Yea, I was fucking beat. And I still had to go out to eat with the crew and do some editing. Waiting until last minute to edit was a rookie mistake and no way was I doing that.

"Ready to eat?" Edward asked as he packed up his camera. I nodded. Indian food wasn't a favorite, but I was starving. Garrett met up with us and we took a cab together. I was so tired I started to doze, and my head started to droop toward Edward's shoulder. He left it there.

"Bella. Hey. Wakey wakey." Edward woke me with a gentle shake of this shoulder. "Hey. We're here." He gave me a small smile.

"Oh. Oh my god. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to sleep on you." I brush any trace of me off his shoulder.

"You're kind of cute when you sleep." He said softly.

"Okay love birds, get out. I'm hungry and I want me some Indian food." Garrett shoved us out of the cab. Inside everyone looked like they ran an all day marathon, which they kind of did. Cons were like that. Emmett and Rose were cuddled up in the corner of the booth next to our table, most of her makeup smearing on Emmett's shoulder. Angie and Ben were quietly going over notes at the table, and Peter was silently stuffing his face. Jasper had his arm around Alice and they were sharing a plate.

I collapsed in a chair next to Alice and snatched a bit of whatever they were eating.

"Hey." Jasper protested.

"Best friends first bud, sorry." I took another bite. I didn't know what it was, and it didn't taste good but again, starving! Jasper stuck his tongue out at me but handed me a fork. I smiled. Okay, I kinda liked him for Alice. Edward and I ordered, and we ate as everyone decompressed and planned for the next day. We went over what we did and what we planned to do. Rose and Alice gave us deadlines. I took out my notebook and started piecing my articles together while everyone talked around me.

Once we were done Alice and I called a cab to take us back to the hotel. Everyone else was going to a party but we were not up for that. Alice didn't want to separate from Jasper so early but editing the ten thousand pictures she took was way more important.

Edward stopped me before I got in the cab and handed me a napkin. "Um, I know we're connected through the group chat but um, here's my number. If you want it." He shrugged.

"Yes! Yea, I mean. Yea sure. Thanks", I was such an idiot. I was glad it was dark, I was blushing like crazy.

"So…" He trailed off.

"So," I said.

"You'll text me later?" He asked, sounding hopeful.

"Maybe." This was me flirting. God, I was ridiculous. "Yes, probably. I want that picture of me and John Barrowman."

"I'll edit that picture first." He winked. I turned to leave but Edward grabbed me and quickly kissed my cheek. "Text me." He said has he helped into the cab next to Alice. Her and I were both too exhausted to talk much but we both started giggling like idiots as soon as the cab pulled out of view of the boys.

I made Edward wait until I showered and had outlined two panel submissions. Alice was talking to Jasper as she edited when I finally decided to text.

Me - _Hey. This is Bella._

Edward - _Bella who?_

Me - _Haha. Can't play that game with me._

Edward - _Yea ok sorry.  
All safe in the hotel? Was worried when I didn't hear from you._

I smiled. He was worried! That was so cute.

Me - _Just needed to finish somethings before I was distracted.  
Picture please._

He sent the picture and I squealed.

Edward - _So I was thinking, tomorrow after the con you come to my place and we can work on stuff together?_

I was shocked. Was he asking me out? Were other people going to be at his place? Was this a group thing? It took me a full two minutes to respond and by that time another text came through.

Edward - _Or not. I'm sorry. We can invite Jasper and Alice if you are uncomfortable._

Me - _No, no. It's fine. Yes, I'll come over.  
But now, sleep._

Edward - _Yea ok. Night night Bella. See you tomorrow._

Me - _Yes. Tomorrow._

* * *

 **Thank you for reading! I don't know when I'll get the next chapter up, as soon as I can!**

 **I'm suspending belief a little bit about some of the con stuff. I've been to a lot of cons but never as a press person. Idk how it actually works!**

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter, thank you again for reading!**

 **What celebrity panel would you LOVE to go to?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you for all the lovely reviews! And thank you for being patient with me. And thank you for the rec on ADF! Please enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

I work up all giddy feeling. I had a semi date with Edward. It was a bit like a date, right? I realized I didn't care about the classification, I was going to spend time with Edward not surrounded by thousands of people.

"What are you so happy about?" Alice asked, throwing a pillow at my head. Which I caught.

"I have a work date with Edward tonight. At his apartment." I said, a huge smile on my face.

"Oooh, Bella is going to get some." She swayed her hips as she said get some. I threw the pillow back at her, hitting her right in the face. "Ow!" She yelled. I started laughing so hard, I almost fell off the bed. Which caused Alice to start laughing as she rubbed her face where I hit her. Once we calmed down, we got dressed. I put on an Agent Carter like dress but without the heels or iconic red hat, and Alice dressed in a Sailor Moon t shirt and another super short skirt.

We met the rest of the crew at Starbucks for muffins and coffee. Edward bought me one again, at this rate I was willing to date him just for the free coffee. Angie and Ben were dressed in casual Leia and Han outfits, Jasper was wearing a red Star Trek shirt, Edward had on a gray Star Wars shirt that had Yoda saying' 'Do you even lift bro?'. It made me laugh. Rosie and Emmett were doing the charity booth again, so they were dressed as Thor and Sif. Looking perfect as usual.

We switched things up and Alice's group were doing the celeb stuff and we were doing other panels. I attended two really awesome panels; one about feminism and women in fandoms and another one about LGBT in media. I learned a lot and had tons of questions. The feminism one was something I thought Rose and Angie should take part in the future. They had certainly been on both ends of the fandom. After the morning panels we were assigned to cover, we stopped by the charity booth.

Emmett belonged to a Marvel cosplay group that did appearances and events dressed as different characters. They had sets and all kinds of props and cosplay stuff. They mostly did children's events. At the cons they set up a photo booth. One of the people in the group was a professional photographer so he would take pictures of people in their cosplay. All the money went to the local children's hospital. It was pretty cool. Alice and I had seen them before but generally all our money went to merch when we attended ECCC.

"Do you want to take a picture with me?" Edward asked.

"What?" I asked, laughing. "I'm not even in cosplay."

"So? It'll be fun and it all goes to charity. Think of the kids Bella. The kids." He joked. I rolled my eyes, but I agreed. He paid the fee and we had our picture taken in the prom pose, with his arms around me and I wanted to melt into him. He looked lanky, but he was surprising muscular. I wanted to stay there forever.

After the picture we walked to the concession area with Rose and Emmett to have lunch with the others. Alice was all excited. "I'm going on a date with Jasper tonight. He's taking me out to dinner and then maybe a movie? Or maybe a club. I'm not sure but he said I could decide. Though I really need to edit but you have that date at Edward's tonight, so I guess it doesn't matter." She said, all in one breath.

"I know I said it's a date but it's not really a date. We're supposed to work."

"Whatever, you're going to be alone in his apartment. That's a date. Do you have condoms? I packed some just in case." She bit into a carrot she packed.

"Jesus Christ, Alice!" I squealed.

"What are we using God's name in vain for?" Edward asked as he sat down with his lunch.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing." I said, kicking Alice.

"No, it's okay I already heard." He had a huge grin on his face.

"Oh my god." I dropped my head onto the table in embarrassment. He grabbed my hand under the table and squeezed it reassuringly.

"We're working tonight Alice, maybe you should take those on your date with Jasper."

"Oh, I plan to." She smirked at him. "Boy wants it bad. I believe we've already had this conversation."

"Are we going to talk about sex every time we eat together?" I asked as I rolled my head to the side to face Alice.

"Um, what else is there to talk about when we are surrounded by hot guys that want us? Yourself included Edward."

"Aw, thanks!" He said in a super mocking tone.

"I don't know, the convention. The panels, the celebs, the cosplay. Any number of things." I sat back up and crossed my arms. Alice was boy crazy but not generally this bad. She had it as bad for Jasper as he did for her.

"Fine. So how were your panels today? I went to the George Takei and Summer Glau panels this morning. They were amazing as always but didn't hear a lot of new stuff." We talked about the panels we both attended and once Angie got there I told her at Rose how they should look into becoming speakers at the feminism panel next year.

"It was a packed room and I think you guys would have a lot to share."

"This was the first year they had it here, and we didn't know about it until too late. We'd love to take part. Thanks for thinking of us Bella." Angie smiled at me.

The afternoon went slow, either because the panels about gaming aren't generally something I'm interested in or because I was excited for my alone time with Edward. I knew we were going to be working, Rose and Angie gave me deadlines and he had his own to meet. I wanted to get to know him better though. I liked what I knew so far.

Once the con was over, we all decided to skip dinner as a group. Edward and I ordered chinese, it was an editing night staple for Alice and me. It was Friday night and there were several working dates going on, though how much work was going to get done would be questionable.

Edward and Jasper shared an apartment by campus. It was the top floor of an old house, several other apartments took the bottom half, all students of course. It only took us about ten minutes to get there and I was so nervous. It's just a work thing, it's just a work thing, I kept telling myself.

The apartment was clean but cluttered. Lots of textbooks and computer equipment around. Edward showed me to his room and it appeared he took more of an effort to make his room look clean. Everything was put away and there wasn't as much clutter as the living room. He had a huge table in the middle of his room that took up the most space, which he used as a desk. There were several cameras and a laptop sitting on it. It was decorated with what seemed like a hundred posters. He had pop vinyls from all different fandom and several Star Wars Lego sets. His bed was unmade, and I saw he had black galaxy sheets and matching black bedspread.

"I, uh, cleaned my room last night."

"Oh." I said. "It looks nice."

"Right." He ran a hand through his hair. "I guess... let's get to work."

We worked for a good two hours, he gave me lots of tips on what Rose and Angie liked and didn't like. I ended up with a good portion of my stuff over the past two days done. He didn't make me change much.

"You're good, Bella." He said as he read over my stuff. I helped him pick out photos to use. There were more of me than I anticipated and his ears turned a little red when I noticed. I didn't say anything, just smiled to myself. After a decent chunk of the work was completed, Edward suggested some drinks and soon, we weren't working at all.

We were sitting in the window seat of his bedroom, facing each other, our legs stretched out. His hand was inches from mine, getting closer with every smile and flirtatious look. Our work was long forgotten on the table. I was nursing my second screwdriver, feeling relaxed and happy but not quite buzzed. He wasn't putting much vodka in my drink; despite his claim of knowing how well Forks girls could throw down.

"Okay, okay." He laughed, finishing up an embarrassing high school story. "First kiss?" He asked leaning his head against the window.

"Ugh, this is so embarrassing." I laughed, taking a sip of liquid courage. He rolled his eyes at me. "Well technically, though _no one_ knows this, my first kiss was Alice." I scrunched up my face, avoiding his eyes.

"Oh, this night just got _very_ interesting." He sat up and smiled crookedly. "Please elaborate, feel free to use as much detail as possible."

"Shut up." I giggled, slapping his leg with the backside of my hand. "It wasn't like that. No, okay, Tyler Crowley's cousin, Jane, was visiting from New York the summer before eighth grade and she's like stuck up and snobby, right? Well, Alice, had just cut her hair short for the first time. Everyone was admiring her because it looked so good on her. Jane, jealous of course, came over and said something like, only lesbians have short hair. So later that night Alice kind of convinced me to make out with her to check if maybe Jane was right." I shrugged.

"And?" He asked, faking innocence.

"Um straight. Both of us. Though I heard from Ben's mom that Jane recently came out." We both laughed. God, I loved his laugh. I had a fuzzy feeling going on that I wasn't sure was from the mixed drink. "My first real kiss with a boy was Mike Newton and it was a few months after the Alice kiss. It was under the bleachers at the homecoming game and he drooled on me. The Alice kiss was better." I took another sip. "You?"

"My first kiss was with Rose."

"Really?" I looked out the window as I tried to picture him and Rose, lover of men with muscles bigger than my head. "I don't see you two as a thing." My eyes finding his.

"Oh, we weren't. It was the first day of sixth grade and Maggie Barnes was wearing her first bra and Rose was pissed that Maggie had grown boobs before her. So she decided to be the first girl in our grade to kiss a boy. After school she grabbed me and shoved her tongue in my mouth. We never spoke of it again."

"That seems like a Rose thing to do." I smiled, and he smiled and there was less than an inch between our hands.

"First time?" He asked as he finished off his drink. I blushed, and the contents of my cup suddenly needed my full attention. "Oh, are you-I mean. I didn't think. I'm sorry."

"No. No, I'm not. I just-uh it's weird to talk about I guess?" I picked at some nonexistent lint on my jeans. "It was with Mike Newton, again."

"The drooler." He pointed at me with cup in hand.

"Ha, yes. We continue to date after the kiss. Then freshman year, I don't know, it just happened one night. He lasted about two thrusts and I barely even registered that it actually happened." Edward burst out laughing.

"This Newton guy sounds awesome. I can't wait to meet him someday." He leaned over me to put his cup on the floor and I noticed he scooted closer as he sat back up. "So was that it, did he ever make it to three thrusts?" I giggled again, man I was doing that a lot.

"No, Mike broke up with me the next week. He was big man on campus now, he was sexually active." I used air quotes as I said it. "He went on to awkwardly thrust on top of other unsuspecting victims."

"That douche." He said with a surprising amount of anger.

"Nah, it's okay. I hooked up with Jake after and, well, that's it." I sighed, I couldn't help feeling guilty talking about Jake while sitting here, crushing on Edward. Even though there wasn't anything to feel guilty about.

"That was a pretty loaded sigh. Is there still a Jake?" The backs of his fingers grazed the back of mine as he asked. Testing the waters.

"No? We-we left things kind of unspoken. We haven't talked or seen each other in about a month but nothing was officially said."

"That sucks, I'm sorry." His fingers intertwined with mine. He seemed to be doing it subconsciously, but all I could think about was how long and slender his fingers were.

"Our dads are best friends and after my parent's divorce, his mom became a surrogate mom. It was like we were _supposed_ to be together? And at first it was exciting and fun. But after a while I felt like I was waiting for something to happen. Jake could tell I wasn't into it anymore and he stopped calling after a while." I drained my cup, wanting this conversation to be over. Jake had already moved on with Leah. "What about your first time?" I asked wanting to lighten the mood.

"Jessica Stanley, New Year's Eve, sophomore year. We had been dating for a year. There were candles and champagne we had swiped from her parents. It was romantic as hell." He said with a fake seriousness.

"Did you last longer than two thrusts?"

"I'll have you know I lasted four and a half." We both laughed, loudly, as we graduated to full blown hand holding.

"Is there still a Jessica?"

"There is not. We broke up end of senior year because she wanted to go to California to be an actress and I wanted Seattle." He shrugged, his eyes avoiding mine. There was still something there maybe? He smiled a bit sadly.

"You loved her." I asked stupidly.

"Yea but I'm here. She's not." He said. I decided to change the direction of the conversation.

"Why Seattle?" I asked as his hand left mine and wandered to my leg. Oh boy.

"Seattle is the home of grunge and it's weird and there's rain and I just love it here. Why are you moving here in the fall? I mean, why did you choose U-Dub?" His fingers were dancing along my inner thigh, not meant to be sexual. It was more like a casual affection but that did not stop me from feeling warm and tingly.

"Close to home, scholarship. Alice." We had made a pact in elementary school to stay best friends forever and we were sticking to that. Plus, her parents said if she stayed in Washington state for school, they'd pay for an apartment. They didn't want their baby leaving and then never coming back like her sister did. An apartment meant I could be her roomie and my dad wouldn't have to shell out extra money.

"So."

"So." We had reached the defining moment. We could continue talking or we could get back to work. It appeared that neither one of us seemed to want to make a decision. We sat for a few minutes, the soft rain from earlier had turned harder and the sky was black. The moon had disappeared behind the clouds. It was comfortable, the silence between us. I liked it. I liked him. Probably too much for someone I just met but there was something between us that I couldn't explain.

"Looks like it's getting pretty nasty out." Edward said to no one in particular. "You can stay…" He didn't finish. Was he asking me to stay the night?

"It's only eleven, I can wait it out." It was still early, even by Forks standards. Guaranteed there was a party on the beach just getting started. "Unless." He was chewing his bottom lip, maybe I was misreading the signs. Maybe he wanted me to leave and was only being polite. We did have to be at the con at nine and we hadn't gotten any work done. "I mean, I can go." I sat up, swearing to myself that I wasn't going to be disappointed if that's what he wanted. We only just met a few days ago.

He sat up too, almost crashing into me, "No. No I, uh." He mumbled something to himself that I didn't catch and before I could ask he kissed me softly. I returned the kiss and smiled as he pulled away. "Yea?" He whispered.

"Yea." And then there was more delicious soft kissing. Which lead soon led to tongues and heavy breathing and then I was straddling Edward with my fingers tangled in his hair. He stood up, as I wrapped my legs around him and carried me to his bed. He laid me down in the bed, but I didn't release my legs. I could feel him pressed against me and there were small thrusts as his lips worked down my neck. My shirt was tossed to the floor, then his, with my bra was soon after and I was dizzy as he kissed and licked and bit everywhere that I needed him to. It was almost embarrassing how much I wanted him. I had never felt those things with Jake and certainly not with Mike. When his hand slid into my pants, I decided I was going to definitely have sex with this boy that I just met. My breaths became shorter and my eyelids fluttered, "Don't stop." I begged. But he was stopping, he withdrew his hand and placed it flat on my stomach. I thought nothing of it as I reached down to undo his pants and started to pull them down.

"Wait. Bella." He pulled back a little. "I need to…"

"Oh right." I interrupted with smile. Safety first.

"No, I just-we need to stop." He sat back on his heels and ran his hand through his hair.

"Oh. ok." I replied weakly. I sat up and covered myself with my arms, suddenly ashamed of myself. I felt tears coming, like pinpricks behind my eyes. "Did I-did I do something wrong?"

"No! No." He tucked my hair behind my ear, letting his fingers trail down my jaw. "We're going so fast."

"I'm fine with that, I was consenting." I assured him. One hundred percent consenting from this girl. I'd sign a waiver if he wanted me to because, damn, there was still some pulsing going on and I wanted so badly for this to continue.

"I know but, you're-you're still in high school." He said without looking me in the eye. Immediately I felt my entire body blush in anger and humiliation. "And you've been drinking."

"I'm eighteen." I spit out; confused as why this was such a pressing issue, when five minutes before he was impatient to get my pants undone. "And I'm not even buzzed."

"I don't want to take advantage of you. We still have to work together. I don't want you to get the wrong idea about us." He said. The tears spilled down my cheeks because clearly, I did have the wrong idea about us.

"The wrong idea, huh? Because the naïve little high school girl would get too attached right?" I pushed him away and groped for my shirt on the floor. I was stupid. I let myself believe we had some kind of special connection. I hastily threw my shirt on and shoved my bra in my pocket.

"No Bella, it's not like that." He put his hand on my arm to stop me. "I'm doing this all wrong. We've only known each other two days but I like you A lot. I don't want to rush things. I want things to be...right. I don't want to just fuck you and you go back to Forks and things fall apart between us. That's not how I am."

I stopped putting my clothes back together and turned to look at him. "Seriously?"

"Yes. I would like things to be a bit more, um, permanent. Before we do that." Now he was the one blushing, which was insanely cute. And totally not fair. "I don't do one-night stands. Plus, Rose and Angie would _murder_ me if things got weird."

"I guess that makes...sense." I felt like an idiot. "Oh god, I'm so stupid." I hid my face in my hands. "Fuck, I'm sorry. I acted like an ass." He came around to my side of the bed and knelt and gently pulled my hands away from my face.

"Not stupid. I didn't handle this right at all. I didn't plan on bringing you over here just for sex. I actually did want to work on stuff and get to know you better. I'm sorry." He kissed me gently on the corner of my mouth.

"It's okay. I get it." I kissed him back.

"I better get you back to the hotel. It's dangerous to have you here." He joked. I agreed and after gathering my things, he got me an Uber back to the hotel. He kissed me goodbye and promised to text me later.

I yelled out a greeting when I got to my room but there was no one there. Alice hasn't returned yet from wherever Jasper took her for their date. I changed into my favorite Star Wars pjs and put my hair up with a pen, I was still a bit flustered and had stuff I wanted to work on.

I wrote and edited until two am before I noticed that Alice wasn't back, and Edward hadn't texted. I shot both of them a quick text. Alice responded fast, she was on her way back and would be about ten minutes. Edward didn't respond. I figured he was asleep like a reasonably sane person that has to be up at seven should be. When Alice got back I tried to listen to her gush about her date, but I began to nod off.

"Oh, I'll just tell you tomorrow sleepyhead. And you can tell me about Edward." She said as she changed in into her pink pjs. I waved her away and drifted off to sleep with thoughts of kissing Edward in my head.

* * *

 **AW, they are such dorks. So awkward. So, again THANK YOU for all the reviews and kind words and rec's. I hope you stick with this story because there is some angst in the future (fair warning). And please be continue to be patient with me, having two jobs really sucks and doesn't leave me much time. I greatly appreciate all of you!**

 **until next time loves!**

 **When was your first kiss? Mine was the summer before 8th grade (around 12 years old for you non-Americans) and it was super slobbery!**


	4. Chapter 4

***hides***

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The next morning, I woke up exhausted but elated. Edward liked me. He thought we had a future. There was a huge smile on my face and I felt warm and fuzzy all over. Alice was still snoring away, but I decided to wake her because I was bursting with the need to gush about Edward.

"Alice. Alice. Alice!" I yelled.

"Oh my god, what!" She yelled back.

"I want to talk!"

"Can't it wait until coffee?" She whined from underneath her mountain of pillows.

"No," I answered

"Ugh, fine." She threw the pillows off her and sat up. Her pink hair was all spikey. She gestured for me to talk. I told her everything that happened. And I did go into detail. "So... he stopped. He turned down no questions asked sex. That's so weird."

"It's not weird." I defended him. "It's sweet. Respectful."

"Yea I doubt that was what you were saying last night."

"It absolutely was not what I was saying last night! But I thought about it. I get it. He wants to make things real and serious between us. What about Jasper? Does he want to make things serious or is he going to be your con boyfriend."

"Oh, Jasper is the real deal. We've already talked about visiting each other when I get back to Forks and what's going to happen when we move here for school. Jasper knows of some apartments close to him that will be available next semester, so I can tell my dad. But I haven't slept with him yet either. I said _I_ wanted to wait. Which he was totally cool with." Alice and I both got up to get dressed. I took a bit more time getting ready. I took care making sure my hair was in loose waves and I put on some makeup. I put on what I considered my most flattering dress; a halter style Ms. Marvel dress from Her Universe. It gave the illusion that I actually had boobs. Plus, it was a no bra dress which I hope would drive Edward a little wild.

We made it to Starbucks late, trying to be pretty takes time. I was surprised Edward wasn't waiting for me with a coffee. He still hadn't shown up when it was time to get to the convention.

"Where's Edward?" I asked the group. Everyone was silent for a heartbeat too long. Rose and Angie shared a look that I didn't quite understand, and Jasper avoided meeting my eyes.

"He's not coming this morning," Jasper answered finally.

"Oh." I swallowed the lump in my throat. "Is something wrong?"

"Um. Something came up that he had to deal with. He should be back this afternoon." I nodded, hoping that it wasn't written all over my face that I was a little heartbroken. He hadn't responded to my texts and he didn't show up. Was he avoiding me? Had I done something wrong? Was I so repulsive that he couldn't fuck me and now wasn't willing to be in my presence?

"Honey, I can tell you are spiraling. Don't worry. Maybe it's a family or school thing." Alice hugged me before she went off with her group. I was stuck with Garrett. Not that he was bad or rude or anything, he just wasn't as personable as Edward. We were back on celebs and covered Jason Momoa, Patrick Stewart, and Kate Beckinsale before lunch. I tried to put Edward out of my mind and listening to Jason Momoa talk and take off his shirt at the request of some woman in the audience definitely helped.

But I couldn't erase Edward from my thoughts completely. I text him twice to ask if everything was okay and never got a response. This made my mind spiral down even more. I thought the flirting and the making out were signs that he was into me. Was I such a bad kisser that I had ruined all hopes of something between us? That was where my mind was all morning. I knew I wasn't doing a good job during my panels. Garrett had to elbow me a few times to get me to pay attention. I felt unprofessional and dumb. I felt gross and unsexy and just all around miserable.

By the time lunch rolled around my chipper attitude from the morning had been replaced with bitterness. I followed Garrett to the concession area and noticed that we didn't have a table like normal. I wasn't all that surprised, Saturdays were a con's busiest day and getting a table for all of us would be next to impossible, but I was a tad disappointed to not see Edward waiting at a table for me. After a few messages with through the group chat, we discovered they were set up near some stairs. When we reached them, everyone was all sprawled out on the floor and I saw Edward's unmistakable hair. My heart leaped in my chest. He was here, everything was okay I thought.

My happiness must have been super evident on my face because when I caught Alice's eye she shook her head at me and motioned for me to stay where I was. Confused, I continued to walk towards them. Alice hopped up and out of Jasper's arms to meet me.

"I think we should eat lunch separate from them! We've barely seen each other this con. I miss you!" She said, in such a way that I knew she was upset about something.

"Alice, what's going on?" I put my hand on my hip. Edward was right there, and she wasn't letting me to him. Something funky was going down and I needed to know what it was. Then I saw it. A mess of curly brown hair leaning against Edward's shoulder. A girl. There was a girl with her arm around Edward. And that girl was not me. Suddenly it made sense. There was another girl. Of course! That's why wouldn't sleep with me. "Alice?" I said quietly, tears forming in my eyes.

"Listen, I don't know the whole story but that's Jessica. They dated in high school and were pretty serious. I guess she just showed up at his apartment last night." She put a hand on her arm. "Bells, I'm so sorry" Jessica, the one he'd seemed to miss when he talked about her the night before. I couldn't compete with her, he had loved her.

"I thought she moved away," I whispered.

"Huh? Oh, I don't know but I think she's back. I've been fuming since I found out. Jasper told me I should talk to you first. Let's go eat somewhere else. Honestly, if Jasper has such douchey friends, I don't know if I want to continue things with him. What does that say about him? How can what Edward did be ok?" She rambled on, a habit when she was upset. "Rose and Angie took him aside earlier and I don't know what was said but it's been positively cold between them ever since."

"I don't want to eat somewhere else," I said.

"But...but, why? Why would you want to go over there?" Alice asked, twisting her hands nervously.

"Some dude played me. That's going to happen to me at college, right? Might as well get the heartbreak over with now." I wiped my tears away and made my way to the group. Everyone looked up and I knew they could see on my face that I had been crying. I didn't care. Edward hurt me and he deserved to know that, along with everyone else. Alice went back to Jasper and started whispering furiously at him.

"Bella, here we saved you a spot." Rose patted a spot on the floor between her and Angie. They both gave me a one-armed hug. Emmett patted me on the back too as Rose shot daggers at Edward. If looks could kill he'd be dead, brought back to life and killed again and again and again.

"Oh hello! You must be Bella, the only one I haven't met." Jessica waved to me. She was petite with a big mess of beautiful brunette curls. I didn't wave back. "I'm Jessica, Edward's girlfriend." She smiled sweetly. She seemed nice, she didn't know anything about me, but I wanted to punch her in her adorable face.

"I thought you dumped Edward and moved to Cali, Jess," Jasper asked through clenched teeth. What was that about?

"Well, California wasn't exactly as all I had dreamed it would be. I'm thinking of transferring to U-Dub next year. So Edward and I can be together again. I hated leaving him so much." She glanced up at Edward dreamily. He wasn't paying attention to her. He was looking directly at me. Jessica didn't seem to notice. She kept right on talking. "I'm home for a visit this weekend and I thought damn, I really miss Edward, so I decided to drop by. He was home thankfully and God, how I missed sleeping next to him." I choked on my drink. Angie patted me on the back. So she was in his bed only what, minutes after I left?

"Bella, how were your panels this morning?" Edward asked. His voice was strained. His eyes were red and puffy, either from lack of sleep or actual crying I wasn't sure. I opened my mouth to speak and nothing would come out. I didn't want to talk to him. I got up abruptly and dropped most of my half-eaten lunch.

"I need to go." The words stumbled out of my mouth. "Um, bathroom." I bolted, practically jumping over the others to get away.

"It was nice to meet you, Bella!" Jessica called, sounding confused. I ran for the bathrooms, fighting the urge to cry right then and there.

"Bella! Bella, wait." I heard Edward calling behind me, but I didn't stop. I had no desire to talk to him. "Bells, please wait." I swung around

"You don't get to call me Bells," I yelled, drawing the attention of everyone around us. "That's a name reserved for my friends and you are definitely not a fucking friend," I said in a quieter tone.

"Okay, Bella. Please let me explain." He held his hands out in surrender. "I meant what I said to you last night. Everything. I thought there was some future for us. I didn't even know Jessica was in town until she showed up at my door. Please believe me." He pleaded.

"And now that Jessica is here that future is over? And she spent the night in your bed? Right after you rejected me in it? Awesome."

"It's not like that. We were talking, and it got late. We fell asleep, it wasn't sexual."

"You know what, it's fine. It's not like we said anything official. We hooked up and that's that. You love Jessica and she's nice. It's fine." My voice was shaking.

"Bella, listen, Jessie is the only person I've ever been with. I loved her. But you… I... I don't know what I want." He admitted softly. It hurt more than I wanted to admit to hear him say that. One small part of me hoped he'd chose me. But how was I to compete against a girl he has a history with? It wasn't like she was an awful person. I got the impression that the breakup hadn't gone well but that's not unusual. He was clearly willing to just jump right back into things with her, seeing as how she was all cuddled up with him.

"You didn't mention me, did you?" I realized, Jessica had known my name, but it didn't seem like she knew that her 'boyfriend' had been minutes from fucking me before she had shown up.

"Bella. I just...I don't." He sighed, his shoulders slumped. "No. No, I didn't mention what happened between us." He wouldn't meet my eyes.

"Well, there's your answer to what you want," I said, fighting back tears. I would not lose it in front of him. "Fuck you, Edward Cullen." I tried to put emphasis behind it, but it sounded weak.

"Eddie? What's going on?" Jessica appeared from behind him. "You just ran off." She looked at him and then to me and the tears slipping down my cheek, despite my best efforts to prevent them. "Oh." She whispered like all the air had just been sucked out of her.

"Jessie." He finally raised his eyes to meet hers. "I think we need to talk."

"Yes. I think we do. Please excuse us, Bella." Jessica said politely. She smiled at me apologetically, even though it was clear something happened between Edward and me, she wasn't going to be rude.

"I'm sorry Jessica," I said. I felt like I owed her at least that.

"Thank you, but I don't think you are the one that needs to apologize." She gave me a small sad smile and I decided to make my exit. I turned heel and left, texting Rose and Angie that I didn't think I was going to make my next panel. I didn't wait for a response, I turned my phone off and stuck it in my bag. I left the convention and walked all the way back to my hotel.

I wanted to be alone to think. I sat cross-legged on my bed and thinking turned into racking sobs. I wasn't quite sure why it hurt so much. I had only known him for three days and I didn't even know him that well apparently. My anxiety grew, and my chest began to feel tight. I was going to have a panic attack over a fucking boy. That made me feel stupid which only made the anxiety worse. I had been hurt by other guys, I didn't know what made this one hurt so bad. But I had never felt for anyone the way I felt around Edward. Not Jake and certainly not Mike. I had felt like I was required to be with Jake. With Edward, it was like every cell in my body wanted him. Wanted to touch him, to kiss him. I wanted to feel his arms around me. I was alive when I was around him and I thought he was a good guy. I thought he wasn't the type of guy to play girls. But it was an act, right? God, I was so fucking dumb. My first experience with a college guy and I got totally screwed in the worst way. I wasn't ready for all this. I wasn't ready to leave home, I wasn't ready to work for FemmeNerds, I was just plain not ready. I was just some kid with no experience trying to play the cool adult and I was failing miserably. I wanted to go home. I wanted to be where no one could possibly hurt me as much as Edward.

Before I could fully think through the decision, I googled how to get to the nearest bus station. I got lucky and discovered a bus leaving for Port Angeles in an hour. I could take another bus to Forks and call my mom to pick me up. She probably forgot when I was supposed to be back anyway. I packed up all my shit and got an uber. Alice was probably blowing up my phone because I had been gone way longer then I said I would be. I was about to be a terrible best friend. I wasn't going to answer her until I got on the bus. I didn't want to be talked out of this. I wanted to go home, be in my own bed, surrounded by people that could never hurt me like Edward hurt me.

Once on the bus, I turned on the hotspot on my phone and pulled out my laptop. I wrote an email to Alice letting her know that I was okay and where I was and what I was doing. She was going to freak the fuck out, but I knew deep down she'd understand. She was usually the dramatic one and I had dealt with quite a few major breakups with her.

I wrote another email to Rose and Angie explaining that I loved them personally but that I wasn't ready to work for FemmeNerds and that I was extremely sorry and to please not take my behavior out on Alice. I attached what I had finished so far and also promised to send them anything else I had done once it was fully edited and ready to go.

Not twenty minutes later I got an email from Edward.

 _Please don't leave Bella. This is your chance, don't fuck it up because of me. You're such a talented writer. I'll never work with you again. We can work opposite conventions or WashGeeks won't work with FemmeNerds anymore or I'll quit! I'll quit if it'll make you change your mind. Just don't ruin this for yourself. Rose and Angie don't want you to do this, none of us do. Everyone really liked you. Please reconsider._

I marked his email as spam and didn't respond. Rose and Angie also sent me an email saying they were sorry to see me go and they'd hope I'd change my mind in the future. They still wanted me, and they were extremely sorry about what Edward had done. It was very short and professional, and it made my stomach twist into a knot. Sometimes I did things without thinking. This was one of those times. I felt guilty about bailing on them. This wasn't how an adult would act in the real world. A pro would just suck it up. Actually, a pro would probably not do half the stuff I did.

Alice didn't respond at all. Either she was that mad at me for bailing or she was following me in her car. Either one was entirely plausible. I eventually turned off my phone and took a restless nap. I was exhausted from being up half the night and from the emotional toll but sleep didn't come easy. I was too upset about how I acted. Once I reached Port Angeles I turned on my phone. Alice had left a dozen messages, I didn't listen to any of them. Edward also left me some messages which I deleted. I called my mom to have her pick me up when the bus got to Forks.

"Hey, mom. Can you pick me up from the bus station?" I asked, hopefully sounding casual.

"The bus station? Is everything okay? What happened to Alice? Aren't you supposed to stay another day?" She was confused but that wasn't unusual. "Did I mess something up? Why isn't your dad picking you up?"

"No mom, everything is okay. It wasn't for me. Alice liked it though, she'll come home tomorrow."

"Oh honey, are you sure everything is okay? I can't believe you didn't like it." She was worried. I heard her cover the phone and whisper to my step-dad, Phil.

"Mom, can you just pick me up? Please? And I'll stay at your house tonight." I begged.

"As long as you promise everything is fine and no one is in any trouble."

"Yes, I promise. I'll see you in like an hour." It would take slightly longer but I knew my mom would be late. She was always late. We hung up and I got on my new bus. I managed to stay calm until we got to Forks and I saw my mom waiting for me. Something about seeing my mom, chewing her thumbnail in worry, set me off. I ran to her and wrapped my arms around her.

"Bella! Oh, honey." She kissed my forehead but didn't ask any details. Mom was a nervous person and she would probably ask too many questions, but she would also bring me ice cream and chamomile tea and warm fuzzy blankets. It was exactly what I needed.

* * *

 **i'm sorry, I'm sorry. I still love all of you. I promise. it won't be forever.**

 **thank you for ALL THE REVIEWS! and thank you for all the follows and favs. I love you even if you don't review. THANK YOU!**

 **hopefully, it won't take me *too* long to get the next chapter done.**

 **Jason Momoa 333 What celeb would make you blush if you met them?**


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